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I'm Scott Schuler. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and the founder of the Man Up Project. I'm here to create a community to build up men into strong role models, respectful husbands, and a place to be unapologetic for being a real man.

We all have certain phrases or things we say on a regular basis. Some may call it a verbal quirk, some a catch phrase, or some a reminder of sorts....

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Speed Doesn’t Kill

What’s up everybody? Excuse me, it’s been a while since I’ve been on. Came across something the other day and it really caused me to stop and think. It was one of those things where you read it, and you go I gotta reread this, this doesn’t make sense, but you know there’s something there. How many of you have seen or experienced that? Where you read something, you just don’t get it, but yet you gotta go back because you know there’s something there that’s gonna be important for you.

What I read was, the first part of this was speed doesn’t kill. I’m sitting here so, I used to be an EMT in the past, I drove tow truck for 14 years and did recoveries and repos and that type of thing. I’ll tell you first hand speed kills, that was the first thought in my mind. Like oh that’s not right, speed does kill what the heck? Kevin, he understands this one, he’s an EMS too.

So I had to go back and reread it, so the second part as I’m listening to this. I read it, and I was like oh my word I gotta share this. This is gold. So it was speed doesn’t kill, what kills is the sudden deceleration or sudden stop is what kills. I was like huh, the sudden movement from going fast to slow is what kills. The speed itself is exhilarating. You go just fast enough so that the fear of death is overrun by the fear of fear, the exhilaration of speed. Going fast doesn’t kill, the speed kills. It’s that sudden piece from going like this to that. That’s what kills.

So this is huge when it relates to life, when it relates as we go through life, as we’re trying to improve, trying to get better in everything we do and the whole process of manning up. That non movement, that piece of just being still, of doing nothing kills you too. That piece is if you’re doing, everything in life is either growing or in the process of dying. Look at trees for example, you go out in the woods and you take an ax and you start cutting into a tree. You know when you’re chopping into a live tree and you know when you’re chopping into a dead tree. But if it’s the middle of the winter, like up here in Minnesota, you look up it’s pretty difficult a lot of times to tell whether that tree is alive or dead. Unless it’s rotting and it’s got a bunch of woodpecker holes in it and stuff, you can see that it’s dead. Many times it’s hard to tell whether that tree is alive, thriving or it’s dead and standing.

This whole piece got me thinking about us as men as we’re going through life. Are we dead and standing or are we alive and thriving? We may have these seasons in our life when we have to be still, where it’s requiring us to do something and you may not see a lot of fruit from our actions, or a lot of leaves on the trees. It’s kind of like that winter period, but we’re still alive, we’re still moving, we’re still growing. There may be times like in the springtime when the leaves come out and they start to bud and everything happens. You’re gonna see more fruit, you’re gonna see things happening from the actions, from the time that you took when you were learning and growing and still alive, now you’re pushing forth fruit. That’s that piece of where are you in your life, are you growing and alive or are you dying and standing?

Eventually you’ll be dead and over, but people can fake it. They can fake that they’re alive, but here’s the thing you don’t see a tree that’s well I’m not really alive and I’m not really dead. There’s no in between, there’s either that or the other. We’re the same way, either we’re doing things that are gonna improve us as a person, improve as a father, improve us as husband, improve us in our business as a businessperson. We’re doing those things or we’re not. If we’re not we’re losing.

I went for, goodness it must of been a month and a half without reading a new book. Normally I have these thoughts and these things that come to me all the time. I was sitting there going I haven’t had a new original thought for a while now, what in the world is wrong? I got to thinking, the reason I haven’t read anything new in a long time. A month and a half for me without reading anything is a long time, so that’s one the first things I did. I needed to get into action, it was still winter season I wasn’t pushing forth any fruit, I didn’t have any leaves. I didn’t look like a beautiful tree, I was standing and could be dead or alive. I needed to start rolling again. I need to fill myself with things that are going to bring fruit later, and that’s what it did. Getting into that action piece, getting into the piece of doing something for myself that’s gonna grow me is what it took.

That’s the thing I wanna encourage all you guys today is really be cognizant, know where of where you are in life. Are you growing or are you standing dead? Again, different seasons, different things are happening in your life I get that. There’s not excuse for us just to be standing dead, because here’s the problem the longer we do it the easier it becomes to not grow. It’s comfortable, it gets comfortable.

Tis the season of giving, so I caught the crud here and here from somebody, somewhere. Whether it was the gym and somebody shouldn’t of been in the gym. So I take a week off of the gym, just because I felt like crap. Now I’m giving it to my wife, now she feels like crap. It’s that piece of at some point and some time things are happening. So what are you gonna choose, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna be that person that just once you take the time off it just becomes easier and easier. It feels comfortable to not get up and go to the gym in the morning. It’s so much easier to just lay in bed, get up and have a cup of coffee and not do the things that I would do right before I get to go to the gym. So what am I gonna do first thing Monday morning? Back at the gym, started all over again.

So think about that guys, as you’re going through this always be doing something to grow. Always be do something to keep you growing that’s gonna bear fruit later. Don’t just be standing dead, remember speed doesn’t kill. Success, everything loves momentum. Success loves momentum, it’s much easier to turn the wheel of a moving car than it is to turn the wheel of a non moving car. Because that momentum, that car is moving there’s less friction that’s gonna stop it from moving. The leverage is easier, it’s no different than life. If you’re moving forward it’s much easier to continue moving forward than to get started. It’s much easier to keep a car rolling than it is to get a car rolling. Don’t stop rolling, don’t stop moving, don’t stop growing. Always push forward trying to better yourself. Remember, speed doesn’t kill it’s the sudden stop that kills. In this case staying stopped kills.

Hope you guys have a great rest of the week, I’m gonna try to get out a new one before Christmas starts. I just hope you guys are all taking some time to enjoy the time of year, spend time with those that you care about the most. I’m gonna challenge all the men in here to man up, look for somewhere someone that you can encourage.

Here’s the deal, not everybody has the financial resources to give greatly or big to other folks. I get that. I wouldn’t tell anybody to strap yourself just to give to somebody else financially. But I will say this, there’s many more ways to give than just with a dollar, or ten dollars or a hundred dollars. You can give them your time, you can give them your thoughts. You can give them your care, reach out to someone let them know how much they mean to you. Often that type of thing means way more than any monetary gift you could ever give.

So do something for someone, somewhere between now and Christmas. Post it here, on this thread. I wanna see hashtag, what’s the hashtag I’m gonna look for, #DidIt. D-I-D-I-T, #DidIt. I’m gonna pick someone for a t-shirt, or something like that, a man up t-shirt. For doing something for someone, and here’s what I want you to do, put #DidIt. Write what you did, whether it’s you gave money, there’s a homeless guy on the street corner and you took him out to eat. There’s a family, you had an extra bicycle and you gave away a bicycle.

That’s what I’m gonna do, one of our son’s has outgrown his bicycle, I’m gonna take a picture of it this week. I’m gonna post it on Facebook for someone who needs it, and I’m gonna make it very clear. I don’t want someone whose just looking for a deal, I want someone who actually needs it. Someone who couldn’t afford it if it wasn’t for this. Do something for someone, post it, say what you did. It’s not so everyone else can fawn over you and say hey great job you’re such a benevolent, warm hearted person. No, that’s not it. It’s to be accountable for doing the challenge, for being accountable for I did it. That’s something, it’s not for other people to make you feel good, it’s for you to say I did it. That person you’re gonna make their day.

So that’s all I got guys, hope you have a great rest of the week. We’ll talk soon before Christmas hopefully. I’ll post here that I did it too. So and I’ll pick someone, you guys have a great rest of the day. Take care.